Guyana’s 53rd Independence anniversary and the second Guyana Carnival just ended. The Guyana Carnival included block parties, shows featuring foreign artistes like Machel Montano and Buju Banton, J’ouvert, a colourful costume parade and other events. Hotels were fully booked as many Guyanese who reside in the diaspora returned and some tourists also travelled for the festivities, many of which were held in Georgetown.
It is believed that the event will evolve in time and have a positive impact on the tourism industry.
While it is apparent that a section of the population has fully embraced and accepted the Guyana Carnival, there are many others who do not support it or are simply not interested. Consecutive days and nights of revelry are not what appeals to them or is not regarded as important.
The ‘I am Legend’ concert, which featured Buju Banton, was the only event I attended. Getting into the venue for a person who purchased a regular ticket was horrendous. I was quickly reminded why I have not gone to a show at the National Stadium in almost 10 years. I do not like huge crowds and or noise. The cluster of people in several lines for the show shoved each other, insulted each other, threatened violence and I did not feel safe. It took at least half an hour to enter the venue. The organisers should have put better measures in place to ensure people’s safety while entering the venue, but I suppose if one did not purchase a VIP or VVIP ticket, one had to humbly accept whatever awfulness they met.
However, I thought the concert itself was amazing. There was a crowd of more than 20,000 people of all ages gathered to witness the first performance of Buju in Guyana since he was released from prison for drug trafficking. Besides the hassle to enter the venue, I did not encounter any other difficulties. The few acts I caught before Buju were short. It was unfortunate that local reggae and dancehall star Natural Black, who was scheduled to perform before Banton, was not given the opportunity to do so because of time.
While I stood smelling and no doubt inhaling the smoke of cannabis and perhaps experiencing my own second-hand high, I like many others allowed myself to be in the moment and enjoy the positive reggae vibrations.
Carnival anywhere in the world is an opportunity to live in the moment. I am quite sure there was little or no thought about the roots, history or significance of carnival, which is thought to have had its origins in ancient Kemet, which is known today as Egypt. The Greeks and Romans later embraced it. When the Roman Catholics adopted it, the festival became ‘carne vale,’ which is Latin for farewell to flesh in observance of lent, when many people abstain from meat consumption. Places like Trinidad and Tobago still celebrate carnival with the connection to lent. Here, there is no such connection. Many believe the motivation of those who decided that Guyana needed a carnival outside of Mashramani was monetary gain. But I believe it is more than that. While Guyana has all the elements for a booming tourism industry without events like carnival, if it has a positive effect on the economy, why not?
The fact that it occurs during the anniversary of Independence is insignificant to many. When we became an independent nation, it was an opportunity to stand on our own, create for ourselves and be authors of our own story; while there might have been some success in so doing, 53 years later, right around the time of Independence, many are celebrating a carnival we basically imported from Trinidad and where the biggest featured acts were not Guyanese but in fact Trinidadians and Jamaicans. What is the Guyanese identity or culture is a question that is becoming more and more difficult to answer.
Nevertheless, carnival is a time when protests against social ills may be suspended in the minds of revellers; a time when many forget about their bills; when worry about the rent or mortgage is not at the forefront of many minds and empty pots are no warning of looming hunger for those who really cannot comfortably afford the demands of carnival but are willing to sacrifice a month or two for a few days of revelry.
Most of the carnival events were paid events. Anyone who wanted to participate in every event would have had to spend thousands of dollars. Banks were offering carnival loans as they did last year. Some people called attention to the fact that often it is difficult to acquire loans for businesses or mortgages, but loans to fete seem easier to obtain. But those who decide that a loan for carnival is important are entitled to do as they please. Some may view it as stupidity, but we must respect that others have choices.
It will be interesting to see how carnival evolves and if one day it will become a countrywide celebration rather than one mainly centered in Georgetown.
At the same time, while a section of the population fetes, the lives of many Guyanese are like a carnival of misery. The music they hear are the clinking of the chains that keep them imprisoned and bind their potential, hindering them from becoming the best versions of themselves. Their rhythms are filled with insults about their flaws and failures. They desperately try to manoeuvre their way in the parade of the demands that the system has set up to determine who they are and how much they are valued. They try to find a balance between their socioeconomic status, psychological and spiritual wellbeing and their J’ouvert often is not of paint and water, but of blood and tears. Many of our people would have chosen to pause their carnival of misery to indulge in the Guyana Carnival because they are tired of the music of despair as their lives are plagued by the issues of a broken society and they want to experience joy and hope. The fact that during the time of Independence many spend more time focussing on the next big fete for the temporary release from our harsh realities tells us that we are yet to become as great as we can be.
